[Darris McNeely] Have you ever had something that you held onto so tightly, because it was so precious to you, you didn’t want to let it go, you didn’t want to lose it? Maybe as a child you had a favorite stuffed animal or a doll or something that was so precious to you. Maybe it was a coin that somebody gave to you, a fake gold coin, doubloon, or a Roman drachma or something like that. But we have things like that that we just want to hold on to, and we didn’t want to let it go because it was so valuable, so precious, the most important thing in the world to us. That’s the way we have to approach the truths of the word of God. We have to hold on so tight because they are the precious truths of eternal life, we don’t want to let them go.  We want to hold fast.

We’ve come to the fifteenth key in understanding the Bible – been going through a very long series here, and this is the last one that we’ve come to – and it can help sum up all of the others that we have talked about and how we come to understand the word of God, the keys to opening and unlocking the truths of eternal life that the Bible has for us, the pearls of wisdom – the very pearls of the kingdom of God.

Holding fast, holding onto something is critically essential, and that’s what we have to do, once we prove it, once we study into it, once we begin to live it, and once we begin to understand exactly what it does to our lives, we’ve got to hold on firm and fast. That’s the way we have to look at the truths of the Bible.

In 1 Thessalonians 5:21 – it’s a very well-known verse – it says, “Test all things. Hold fast what is good.” Prove all things, test all things, and hold fast, hold on to what is good. Throw off what is untrue. Throw off what doesn’t work. Throw off anything that hurts or harms, and keep what is true. That’s what Paul is saying there.

You know, the more we study, and to whatever point you are in your journey through the word of God and how it affects your life and your understanding of it, recognize that as you continue to live it, you continue to study the word of God, as God draws you through stages of life through His Holy Spirit. You will deepen in understanding, deepen in appreciation for the Bible. You may, depending on where you are on the continuum of truths right now, you might even still yet have certain things to learn and to come to understand about the Bible that will cause you to have to unlearn the error that has been there. And as you replace that error with the truth of God, again, you prove it, you test it, you hold fast to what it is.

Let me give you one prayer to kind of wrap up and to conclude this series that we’ve been going through. It’s one that has stood me well for many different reasons through my years of studying the Bible, teaching it, helping people to come to understand that. It’s in Philippians 1:6. It’s a promise. Philippians 1:6. It’s a promise from God, and it can be one that He makes to you and that, when you claim it, He will fulfill. Here’s what Paul writes: “Being confidant of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.” We can have confidence that what God has begun in us, through His word, to lead us in understanding, conviction, and an action to have as a part of our life, God can continue in that. Claim that promise, that as He’s begun a good work in you, He will complete that work. And as we hold fast, as we hold true to the word of God and the understanding God has given to us, He will complete that work that He begins in us, even unto the day of Jesus Christ.

I hope that this has been a profitable series. You might want to go back through several of the others that we have covered in this series, but I hope it has inspired you to deepen and appreciate your understanding of the very valuable word of the living God.

That’s BT Daily. Join us next time.